This is my personal take on what I *think* happened in Balakot and after the Indian Airforce conducted the airstrike. Not surprisingly, our ‘secular’ opposition and ‘liberal’ ecosystem would rather embrace the Pakistani version of events. And because their opinion on this matter is driven by personal jealousy towards PM Modi, I understand that it is impossible to change their mind. In general, conspiracy theorists of any kind do not respond to logic. Any effort to debunk their foolishness only ends up reinforcing their beliefs.
But, being the idiot that I am, let me try to answer all the ‘questions’ that the opposition and its ecosystem is raising. Besides, it’s really easy to piece together the puzzle.
Q1. Did Indian Air Force strike at Balakot in Pakistan?
Of course, it did. Pakistan confirmed this directly and did so even before India put out a statement.
Q2. Was there a Jaish terrorist camp at the spot where India struck?
Again, of course. Even Al Jazeera confirmed that there was a Jaish “school” at the spot, even showed us a picture of the sign.
Jaish is a terrorist organization. Any “school” run by them is a terrorist camp. No more justification needed.
Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera decided to go with the headline of “no casualties”. Even though when you read the actual article, Al Jazeera never talks about actually visiting the spot where the “school” was.
Why was Al Jazeera unable to visit the site of the school? Did the legs of the reporter covering the story get too tired? The truth is that the Pakistan government has denied media permission to visit.
So the Government of Pakistan points to a spot somewhere in the mountains and said something like: “Nothing happened at that spot over there which you are absolutely not allowed to visit“.
And yet, Al Jazeera relayed the Pakistani Government claim of “no casualties” in its headline as if its automatically true. Why? You tell me.
Q3. Did India’s air strike kill any terrorists at the Jaish camp?
Well, it has been nearly two weeks and Pakistan still won’t let anyone visit the spot where “nothing happened”. What do you think?
To Indian liberals over here who have invested so much emotional capital into the Pakistani narrative of “no casualties”, I have a simple request: call on your beloved big-hearted Pakistani PM Imran Khan to let people visit the spot and see for themselves.
I want to ask our liberals: Doesn’t Pakistan hold all the cards here? Balakot is in Pakistani territory. They can demolish all of India’s claims in half a second by letting people visit the spot! Why won’t Imran Khan just do that and give the good news to Indian liberals and to the people of Pakistan?
So, yes, there were casualties. Of course, there were. Otherwise, there is no imaginable reason for Pakistan to prevent people from visiting the spot.
In fact, there’s more. Didn’t I hear there was a “school” at the spot? If Pakistan could, don’t you think Pakistan would have invited the whole world by now to come and witness the brutality of India targeting a school? Imagine the kind of public relations nightmare that would have been for India!
Why is Pakistan giving India such a pass? Unless they need time to remove the bodies of terrorists secretly from the spot. Quite a few common people live near the area. It will take time to remove the bodies and cover up the evidence.
Q4. Where did the figure of ‘300 terrorists killed’ come from?
Note that India never officially claimed any figure, people have been talking of ‘300 terrorists killed’ since the day of the strike. Conspiracy theorists want to know how India could have a number, officially or unofficially, without counting dead bodies.
Simple, actually.
Ah!
Q5. Why won’t the Government of India give ‘proof’?
Anybody asking this question should first answer this one: Did you raise similar doubts at the time of the surgical strike of 2016? If so, have you publicly taken back your comments casting aspersions on the government and the military? Have you apologized to the government, to the military and to the people? If not, why?
In 2016, the details came out slowly, one by one. Every single claim made by the Government proved to be correct. Every claim made by Pakistan proved wrong.
Then, why are the same folks who raised doubts about the surgical strike rushing to embrace Pakistan’s version this time again? Why would you embrace the version of the country that was proven to be lying the last time? And in any case, why do you believe an enemy government above your own? Is it because you hate Modi so much that you feel like he is a bigger enemy than Pakistan?
If so, liberals should say that upfront.
I remember lots of doubts and taunts thrown at the Indian version back in 2016 by these same people after the surgical strikes. I don’t remember many public apologies later. In fact, I don’t remember any apologies. Why so?
Now let us address the question of “proof” directly. Of course, I have no direct knowledge of the matter, but from what I have read in media and from journalists (including media known to be heavily anti-BJP) is that a “friendly” country provided us with the ultra-high resolution satellite photos for the strike. Considering how sophisticated this technology is, I am guessing this “friendly” country is either the US or Israel. Could be Japan also, by the way. As a result of this, the Govt of India is probably not at liberty to make the photographs public, giving away the capabilities of the foreign spy satellite.
Q6. Did India shoot down a Pakistani F-16 when the enemy tried to violate our airspace?
This one is easy. We know Pakistan told two obvious lies about what happened on that day. The first is that they didn’t use any F-16s. That’s demonstrably false because the Indian Air Force made public pieces of the missile that could only have come from an F-16.
Again, why would Pakistan randomly lie about not using F-16s unless they had something to hide?
The second lie that Pakistan told is about capturing two Indian pilots, a claim that they officially retracted later.
Now, people don’t usually get confused between numbers 1 and 2. It’s really easy to count from 1 to 2. It’s so easy that even somebody who studied at a Jaish “school” could do it.
So how did Pakistan’s Government manage to mix up the numbers 1 and 2? People on the Indian side saw the Pakistani F-16 go down and it’s likely that Pakistanis ended up “capturing” their own pilot. I read some reports that say the Pakistani pilot was roughed up and beaten very badly by his own. I should not be laughing, I know.
Q7. Why is ‘international media’ so desperate to believe that India didn’t shoot down a Pakistani F-16?
Please tell me you are not talking about that New York Times story. That read more like an ad for why India should buy more American weapons. And imagine what it does to America’s multi-billion $$$$ defence industry if word gets around that an F-16 was shot down by a mere Mig 21?
That wasn’t hard at all. The pieces fit into place almost obviously.
The only remaining question is this: Why has a section of the opposition and its ecosystem refused to piece together this simple puzzle? Why would they rather believe the fantastic claims of a globally discredited government of an enemy country?
You tell me. I have some guesses, but I won’t say more.
